David C. Keehn is an attorney from Allentown, Pennsylvania, with a history degree from Gettysburg College and a juris doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania.
Scholars have been starved for a sound, book-length study that would tie the loose ends together about the Knights of the Golden Circle, differentiate between myth and substance, and convincingly establish this shadowy organization's place in American history. David C. Keehn's book ends the drought. Within a chronologically structured . . . and clearly written narrative, Keehn's imaginative and logical detective work recovers the Knights of the Golden Circle's history from its formative moments as a southern proslavery imperialist organization in the 1850s through its morphing into secessionist cells until its fading away approximately midway through the American Civil War.--Robert E. May, author of The Southern Dream of a Caribbean Empire, 1854-1861 The Knights of the Golden Circle operated on the edges of American political life before the Civil War, a conspiratorial force devoted to the dream of creating a slaveholding empire across the Americas. Their dark maneuverings, as David C. Keehn brilliantly shows, was not the isolated and forgettable work of extremists. They established an organizational network throughout the South, channeling the sectional rage of southern men into a political crusade for secession. To tell the story of the Knights, Keehn has delved into unexplored document collections to discover a powerful story about a group of men who wanted to remain obscure in the historical record, who wanted their actions to appear mystical and remote, and who ultimately did not want their story told.--Peter S. Carmichael, author of The Last Generation: Young Virginians in Peace, War, and Reunion This well-written and extensively researched study retrieves the Knights of the Golden Circle from the shadows of popular lore and provocatively places them in the center of the historical narrative of the Civil War. The author provides persuasive evidence that the Knights had more prominent members, and a greater impact, than has been generally accepted by historians, and their influence lingered throughout the war. All scholars who study the leaders and events of this period will find much of interest in this work, which is certain to become a classic.--Richard B. McCaslin, author of Lee in the Shadow of Washington